303
537

Abstract

The post-war American noir films were influenced by a variety of filmmaking styles, contents and forms, generating from different countries. The films used all these influences to create a cinematic world filled with crime, darkness and despair. The spaces in which the stories unfolded reflected the inner world of characters and foreshadowed the horrible things that were to happen. The alleyway in this sense is a key location for noir films because it is the symbolic space in which the somber climax of the films unfolds. The use of the alleyway has been examined in exemplary noir films through a formal textual analysis. The analysis has demonstrated that the alleyways are spaces that are used to realize dark deeds; far from the eyes of the public, poor souls are wiped out, their desolate existences ending in the dark cities where they lived alienated lives.